How to Develop Your Technical Consulting Career

As technical recruiters, when we interview a consultant for IT or Engineering positions, we ask about the candidate’s career game plan. If you’re our candidate, we need to know where you want your career to be next year, three years from now, and five years down the line. Why is that important? Seeing the big picture helps pin down the actions and details needed to get you there.

Knowing where you want to go helps our technical recruiters determine the best placements for you. A frank, two-way discussion with your recruiter can help you break through career inertia. Identifying specific job opportunities is one benefit; exposure to a fresh, data-driven perspective on your objectives is another.

Discussing your goals also helps clarify your criteria for the jobs you want, which makes it easier for you to be strategic when pursuing and accepting career opportunities. Your criteria may include a specific company or geographic location, a pay rate that makes it easier to support your lifestyle, and a workplace culture that matches your personality. Perhaps your criteria will include an opportunity to expand your comfort zone or learn new skills.

As a technical recruiting agency, Elite Technical adheres to our own criteria for IT and engineering candidate placements. Among other things, we target individuals with a demonstrated success record and the ability to work effectively in a team environment. We want people who communicate well and demonstrate reliability. We also look for the same high level of commitment to ethics and integrity that we bring to work every day.

Career Advice: How to Achieve Your Career Goals

To advance your career, consider what motivates you to succeed. What impact will reaching your goals make on your life? What might get in your way? Clarity strengthens purpose.

• Be specific about what you want to achieve, and write down your goals. The more details you provide, the greater your chance of recognizing the right opportunities. Asking yourself open-ended questions about your intentions, then writing your answers brings clarity. Research demonstrates that putting pencil to paper, and physically writing your thoughts, helps strengthen your brain’s connection to your goals. Keeping a written copy also will provide a checklist and a mark in time against which you can assess progress.

• State your targeted career growth time frame, and work toward it by charting your next steps.

• Keep your career game plan checklist where you can see it and monitor your progress.

• If you feel overwhelmed, chunk down your list and approach your goal(s) one step at a time.

• If you find yourself falling off track, pick a step you can work on in the next day, week or month. That step might be as simple as refreshing your resumé, hiring a business coach, checking the Elite Technical Job Board , or registering for a technology certification program. As you make progress, your motivation will grow.

• Identify what you must learn to master challenging objectives; then identify the resources you need. You might need to improve your interview skills, build social media connections, or add an in-demand skill set to your resume. You also might need to identify a training program or necessary financial resources. Meeting those needs starts with a first step forward.

To support your technical career plan, contact the Elite Technical team. We’ve got resources we’re happy to share.